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Carter Picks Up Where He Left Off

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Feb. 1 - Every night, it seems, Vince Carter improvises his way through a dazzling new move, before Jason Kidd delivers the dagger.

On Tuesday night at Continental Arena, the defining moment of Carter's 31-point performance came in the third quarter of a 107-97 Nets victory, when Carter sliced his way through the entire Chicago Bulls defense.

The suddenly resurgent Nets (19-26) won their season-best fourth consecutive game and leapfrogged the Knicks into third place in the Atlantic Division. They trail first-place Philadelphia by two and a half games and are two games behind the Celtics, whom they play in Boston on Wednesday.

With the Nets in the midst of a 21-3 run, which broke open a close game in the third quarter, Carter isolated himself at the top of the key against Chicago's Andres Nocioni, who tried his best to clutch, grab, hack and hold Carter all game.

As if to end all doubt that Nocioni could not guard him without fouling him, Carter shook Nocioni with a crossover dribble, then spun clockwise past him down the lane. Before the second line of Chicago's defense -- Antonio Davis and Othella Harrington -- could recover to help Nocioni, Carter leaped and flipped a one-handed shot into nothing but net to cap a 12-0 run.

As he ran back up the court, Carter flailed his arms and screamed.

"He gets nicer by the second," Kidd said of Carter, who had scratches and cuts on his forearms and underneath his left underarm as proof of Nocioni's blunt defense. "That was a big-time move."

The Bulls (22-21), who had won 18 of their previous 23 games, struggled with Carter's one-man highlight show. Carter, named the Eastern Conference player of the week Tuesday for his play on the Nets' recently concluded Western trip, has scored 30 or more points in three straight games.

After the Bulls, who are 0-3 against the Nets this season, cut a 17-point deficit to 7 with 3 minutes 15 seconds remaining in regulation, Kidd followed Billy Thomas's layup with a 3-pointer to help put the game away.

Kidd finished with a season-high 26 points and added 13 rebounds and 9 assists. The Nets received 23 points from guard Jacque Vaughn, who tied his career high after a rare start at shooting guard.

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The Nets kicked off a stretch of 12 home dates in a 16-game stretch with their seventh victory in nine games.

The Nets, who have averaged 103.3 points in their last eight games, were coming off their first winning Western swing since November 1997, but the trip proved costly.

On Tuesday, the Nets announced that Rodney Buford, a journeyman swingman who had been starting in place of the injured Richard Jefferson, tore ligaments in his left ankle during the Nets' victory at Utah on Saturday.

Buford, who has averaged 8.8 points and 3.7 rebounds in 43 games for the Nets, was averaging 13.0 points and 5.6 rebounds in the 11 games since Jefferson announced he would have season-ending wrist surgery. Buford is expected to be out four to six weeks.

The Nets also announced that they were putting the reserve forward Brian Scalabrine on the injured list with a hyperextended left knee. The Nets activated Ron Mercer and Zoran Planinic, but neither is expected to play before the weekend, at the earliest.

"Every time we take a step forward, it seems like somebody gets hurt," Kidd said before the game.

REBOUNDS

The 7-foot center Elden Campbell made his Nets debut after arriving early Tuesday night from Detroit. "My wind is going to be bad," said the 36-year-old Campbell, whom the Nets claimed off waivers last Friday. "It's going to be pretty ugly at first. But it won't take long, just a week or two. I'll be all right."

Campbell said he was initially shocked and angry that the Nets had claimed him, because his family lives in Detroit, where Campbell had planned to re-sign if he cleared waivers. "I'm a pro," he said. "I was eventually going to come around." Campbell received a nice hand when he was inserted in the game with 1:13 remaining in the first quarter. He wound up with one rebound in two minutes.

The Nets signed the 6-foot-8 forward Donnell Harvey to a 10-day contract. A 2000 first-round pick of the Knicks out of Florida, Harvey has played for Dallas, Denver, Orlando and Phoenix.